Cornish pasty

Author Fraser McAlpine, who must explain Britain to foreigners as editor of the BBC’s Anglophenia blog, and answers more in new book Stuff Brits Like: A Guide To What’s Great About Great Britain.
弗雷澤·麥卡爾平是BBC的Anglophenia博客的編輯，也是新書《英國人的喜好：向你介紹大不列顛的偉大之處》的作者，他在新書中中向外國人詮釋了英國，并加以說明。

So here are some of the best bits about being British ...
現(xiàn)在讓我們來看看英國特色的的最佳代表吧。

Cornish pasty
康沃爾餡餅

The Cornish pasty, staple of the West Country county, was created as a handy lunch for the tin miners.
康沃爾餡餅是英國西南部各郡的主食，是由幾個錫礦工人發(fā)明出來當做簡易午餐的。

They often ended up with arsenic on their fingers, and the pasty allowed them to hold the thick crust, which they could then discard at the end of their lunch.
這些工人經(jīng)常因吃到他們指頭上的砷（也就是砒霜）而喪命，而康沃爾餡餅有著又厚又硬的邊，工人們可以抓著邊吃餡餅，吃完后再把這些邊扔掉，就可以避免吃到砷了。

Joe Orton

Joe Orton
喬·奧頓

The playwright, who wrote Loot, and his lover Kenneth Halliwell used to sneak books from libraries and replace their dust jackets with homemade versions, complete with a fresh – and scandalous – blurb and the odd naked man, too.
喬·奧頓是名劇作家，《人贓俱獲》是他的主要作品之一，他和他的情人肯尼斯·哈利維爾過去常常把圖書館里的書偷偷帶出來，然后給那些書換上自制的書皮，書皮上還帶有令人震驚、夸張古怪的年輕裸男的圖案。

Pantomime Dame

Pantomime Dame
話劇中的女性角色

The British love of cross-dressing originates with Shakespeare, who had males playing females. But in Victorian times both the main female and male lead were traditionally played by women.
自從莎士比亞提議由男性來表演女性角色之后，英國人對易裝表演的喜愛一發(fā)不可收拾，不過在維多利亞時期，話劇中的男女主角都是由女性來扮演。

Marmite

Marmite
酵母醬

Loved and hated in equal measure, Marmite is made from the breweries’ boiled-down leftovers, known as beer scum.
讓人們又愛又恨的酵母醬，是從啤酒廠的殘余物中濃縮提取出來的，還被稱為啤酒泡沫。

Despite being a quintessential British condiment, it was actually created by a German scientist called Justus von Liebig.
盡管酵母醬是英國調(diào)味品中的典型代表，但它實際上是由一位名為尤斯圖斯·馮·李比希的德國科學家發(fā)明的。

Phone boxes

Phone boxes
公共電話亭

The original design of the iconic red British phone boxes were actually green to blend in with the grass and trees. But they blended in so well people started walking into them, so the colour had to change. As Royal Mail also ran telephone services, they were painted the classic red colour.
英國公共電話亭一開始并不是那個經(jīng)典的紅色形象，而是綠色的，很容易和草木混為一體，正因如此，人們常常會不小心撞到電話亭，所以后來就改了顏色，改成了經(jīng)營電話業(yè)務(wù)的英國皇家郵政的標志性紅色。

Tikka masala

Tikka masala
烤雞咖喱

Chicken tikka masala is a Glaswegian invention thought up in 1971, while the Indian balti dishes were first created in Birmingham restaurant Adil’s in 1977.
烤雞咖喱這道料理是格拉斯哥人在1971年發(fā)明的，而印度干鍋菜則是由伯明翰一家飯店里叫阿迪爾的人于1977年首創(chuàng)。

Rugby... league & union

Rugby... league & union
橄欖球聯(lián)盟&聯(lián)合

The divide between rugby union and rugby league goes back to the late 1800s.
橄欖球聯(lián)盟和橄欖球聯(lián)合之間的劃分可以追溯到19世紀晚期。

In the industrial north, amateur players were losing too much paid work in order to play so they decided to go professional. But players from clubs in the south refused to join them in their rugby league, which developed in parallel to rugby union, each with their own rules and customs.
在北部工業(yè)地區(qū)，業(yè)余橄欖球員因為橄欖球賽而失去了很多有償工作，所以他們決定成為職業(yè)選手。但是來自南部地區(qū)橄欖球俱樂部的球員們拒絕和他們一起組成橄欖球聯(lián)盟，后來這些南方球員們發(fā)展為橄欖球聯(lián)合，與聯(lián)盟并駕齊驅(qū)，雙方都有各自的規(guī)則與習俗。

Lord Rokeby

Lord Rokeby
羅克比勛爵

The eccentric 18th century peer loved water so much he ate dinner in his pool and it was believed he wanted to be a fish.
這位古怪的18世紀貴族無水不歡，他甚至連晚餐也要在泳池里享用，以至于大家都覺得他想成為一條魚。

Doctor Who

Doctor Who
神秘博士

The Doctor Who theme tune, recorded at an experimental BBC Radiophonic Workshop, was one of the first widely popular electronic songs.
神秘博士的主題曲是在BBC無線電音樂工場錄制的，當時這場錄制只是作為一個實驗。這首主題曲是早期廣為流傳的電子歌曲之一。

主題曲聽這里：

Eddie the Eagle

Eddie the Eagle
飛鷹埃迪

Eddie Edwards became a household name after losing the 70m and 90m ski jump in the 1988 Winter Olympics. It was the first time Britain had entered a competitor in the event and Eddie had to borrow his ski boots, which were so big he wore six pairs of socks to make them fit.
埃迪·愛德華茲是在1988年冬奧會上輸?shù)?0米和90米的跳臺滑雪比賽后才變得家喻戶曉，在當時，英國第一次有人參加這個項目，埃迪甚至沒有自己的滑雪靴，而他借來的滑雪靴太大了以至于他要穿六雙襪子才能使靴子變得合腳。